The ORIGINAL gathering place for a merry band of Three Percenters. (As denounced by Bill Clinton on CNN!)

Monday, January 31, 2011

ATF execs' ululations of agony -- Not-so-instant Karma at the tipping point of the perpetual scandal that is ATF -- and David Olofson's revenge.

An ululation (aka ololuge or ololygmos) is a long, wavering, high-pitched sound resembling the howl of a dog or wolf with a trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid movement of the tongue and the uvula. The term ululation is an onomatopoeic word derived from Latin. It is produced by moving the tongue, rapidly, from left to right repetitively in the mouth while producing a sharp sound. -- Wikipedia.

"The Three Amigos" at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot. From left to right: David Codrea, Len Savage and an old fat guy with a cane.

Folks,

It has been a long day.

When I got home this evening I received this from someone in the government:

Congratulations on staging a fine opera. I know I don't know all of what it took to pull it off, and can't imagine it, but have some notions of the difficulties. It worked because the right stuff aligned.

There's gonna be a lot of sore pussies at ATF --- not only is a week pretty short notice for a briefing, the prospect of getting salaries withheld for lying will get some attention, and ATF may try and lie anyway. But I doubt it will work, because I doubt the ATF Special Agents will go along with it, and there's no way to fool them.

Lying to Congress is as serious as it gets --- Congress could and would cut off funding for all of ATF, if that sort of thing persisted after the rattling of perjury sabers.

I noticed there are different versions of the Mexican press story, some short, some abridged; no telling what's up with that, but at this point that is a detail.

I sent the letters to a Washington Post reporter tonight. . .(REDACTED) . . .

Again, congratulations.

I was not the only recipient. It also went to the two other amigos pictured above, and for good reason. This was a group effort in applied karma.

I'll tell you flat out, I've been grinning like a chimp, to use my Grandpa Vanderboegh's phrase, since I got the Grassley letters this morning and posted them, scooping everybody including the Associated Press. So too, I suspect, have the other two amigos. So too are a lot of people, both within and without the government. This day has been a long time coming.

Today was a textbook case of not-so-instant Karma at the tipping point of the perpetual scandal that is ATF. And I'll be darned if I don't enjoy the screaming coming from the fifth floor. Waldo and others report that there are a number of people in ATF HQ, Main Justice and even the White House who are ululating in agony and thrashing around like their hair was on fire. Or perhaps it is only their pants.

I also heard early this evening from an experienced lobbyist well connected to the new Congress. That there will be ATF oversight hearings -- dealing with not only the death of Brian Terry and the Project Gunwalker scandal but with the whole panoply of ATF scandals mentioned in these pages over the past two years -- is said to be a bet-the-farm certainty.

And there is so much to look into. Let's count a few:

** Project Gunwalker and the death of Brian Terry (and the coverup of the circumstances of same) as well as the failure to apprise the Mexican government over the objections of ATF's own Mexico City attache.

** The framing and incarceration of David Olofson highlighting the scandal that is the lack of ATF standard testing procedures and regulatory transparency.

** The "economic Wacos" perpetrated by the ATF on people who had the gall to testify against them as expert witnesses in court or just because the agency didn't like their political opinions, epitomized by the case of Len Savage, including (but not limited to) regulatory harassment, knowing use of unreliable snitches, physical threats and intimidation, corrupt and unethical ex parte communications with federal judges.

** The profligate waste of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of an agenda, including most spectacularly the estimated more than a million dollars spent chasing a stuffed child's toy by the name of Ramsey A. Bear for almost two years, who a well-placed NFATCA snitch told them was an associate of Len Savage.

** The scandal that is the NFRTR, which the ATF always testifies under oath in prosecutions is accurate when they know damn well it is not. Such serial perjuries have sent more than one innocent man to jail over the years.

** The South Korean Garand rifle case, where the ATF persuaded the State Department to halt the importation of collector rifles based on a deliberately contrived report that such rifles were the preferred weapon of gang-bangers, even though they knew this wasn't the case and that such rifles were being sold by the federal government itself to marksmen and collectors through the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

** The systematic victimization of their own street agents who either ran afoul of out-of-control supervisors or who were trying to blow the whistle on agency mistakes. The website CleanUpATF.org is full of such incidents which up until now have been pooh-poohed by the agency and largely ignored by the press.

** The abuse, in the above attacks on street agents, of the EEOC process and the hired "legal experts" used to skew the process in the agency's favor.

** The gang of recidivist criminals that is the ATF Chief Counsel's Office, who throughout the cases above and others, never fail to sacrifice law and justice on the twin demi-god altars of their own anti-firearm agenda and personal internal power over the clueless directors as they come and go. It is the CCO which really runs the agency and is responsible for its current scandalous nadir.

David Olofson and family in a photo taken at the federal prison where he was incarcerated after being framed by ATF Agent Jody Keeku.

Those are a few of the scandals waiting to be ripped open under oath. There are others. Which brings me back to The Three Amigos.

We each first met the others at that Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot which now seems like ancient history, though it was but a couple of years ago. David was by then an experienced firearm columnist and blogger. Len was legend in the firearms design and Class III community. I was a pissed off scribbler with a notorious past of waging cold war against federal bureaucracy in the furtherance of liberty. I remember sitting on the grass underneath a tree and talking with them about the case which excited our mutual contempt and outrage -- the framing of David Olofson.

David had loaned a semi-auto rifle to a young man who later would prove to have been an ATF snitch. Conveniently, when the young man took it to the range (without David being present), it malfunctioned after a couple hundred rounds and began to double or triple uncontrollably, firing out-of-battery, a dangerous condition. Jody Keeku, the ATF agent in charge of the case, sent the rifle to the Firearms Technology Branch in West Virginia for testing. They found it to be a malfunctioning semi-auto rifle, not a machine gun. Keeku told them to retest it using soft-primer ammunition. Told what to find, the FTB guys "found" it to be an automatic weapon and Olofson was charged with transferring a full-auto weapon in violation of the National Firearms Act of 1934.

David Olofson was represented by a federal public defender who, in my opinion (and he may sue me if he likes), was certainly ineffective and incompetent and possibly bought by the prosecution.

Len had been called late to the case as an expert witness. The judge, at the insistence of the ATF, refused to allow Len to even disassemble the weapon, let alone test it.

Not surprisingly, David Olofson was sent to federal prison.

Thus it was the Olofson case which brought me off the sidelines and the three of us together. The Three Amigos (I forget who used the term first, probably David) were more the "Three Guys Walking In The Same General Direction Over A Rickety Bridge," especially at first. Each of us had sources and strengths that complimented the others. Yet, our actions were by no means perfectly coordinated. Not hardly. As the inevitable point man, I often did and said things that made the others blanch in disagreement, usually after the fact. There were things that Len, as both an expert witness and subject of ATF court action, could not and would not tell me. There were other times when both he and David chided me for jumping on a fact or issue too hard. Len's cautions to me were famous and sometimes painful, again, usually after the fact. David's also. Along the way between then and now we Three Amigos added other members of what I have called "the willing coalition of Lilliputians" until we number in the dozens. We don't agree with one another on everything. Some, especially the street agents of the ATF, would say that they disagree with me on most things.

But there were certain things that we all agreed upon -- simple justice, the truth, the antiseptic quality of sunlight and the venality of the agenda-driven snake pit that was the Chief Counsel's Office. In every injustice perpetrated by the ATF hierarchy, there -- for those who looked close enough -- were the fingerprints of the CCO. Keeku could not have done what she did without the willing assistance of the CCO. The CCO directed the "economic Wacos" against Len Savage and others. The CCO perverted the EEOC process to attack street agent whistleblowers.

And added to this was the keen insight of Pete at WRSA, who was also underneath that tree that day in Kentucky: that no one, and I mean, NO ONE, really likes crooked lawyers, not even their own spouses and/or mistresses.

So we set out, we Three Amigos, simply sharing information, not wholly trusting one another then but united in common cause exemplified by the Olofson injustice. Gradually we built a very complete understanding of how the CCO machine worked and came to understand that its overweening arrogance was its fundamental weakness.

They were arrogant because no one of either political party had ever held them to account. They were above the law. They, in their own minds, WERE the law. So as bad as the Project Gunwalker scandal and the death of BPA Terry is, it is merely the latest expression of the corrupt practices of the senior executives and, especially, the Chief Counsel's Office of the ATF.

When they are called to testify under oath in the near future, they could all benefit from the profound wisdom expressed by the great American philosopher Frank Zappa in 1965.

Do you love it?Do you hate it?There it is,The way you made it.

And to Jody Keeku, wherever she now is, I would add, "How do you like David Olofson's revenge?"

Mike VanderboeghThe alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters

Congratulations to all of you. My own feeble effort to get the gunwalker story picked up is all the lesson I need in how difficult it is to get corruption investigated by any members or sycophants of a corrupt government.

I welcome the hearings, and am delighted they'll happen just as the Obamamachine revs up on gun control. The cynic in me worries that the hearings will end up being conservative candy. As in, they feed us a few sweet treats while continuing to fiddle as Rome burns.

Well you three amigos did some fine work. This will either end so well for the good guys that matt bracken could write a book about it or it'll get covered up and nobody will get any peace or justice. If that happens well its just another on the list. I think lots of folks are sharpening their pitchforks for when the list just gets too big.

So, if this is the straw that breaks BATFE's back... And the hated bureau goes away... The firearms and explosives enforcement will not disappear but will surely go to Homeland Security.

See how you like THAT in a couple of years. I'm not looking forward to dealing with a department devised from the ground up totally for the political and social engineering ends that BATFE was warped into serving since 1968 or so- And as good as your intentions were in this, you might want to consider the possibility that you have just been played.

Thank you, and David Codrea, for doing what has needed to be done for so many years now. And please pass on my thanks to the brave agents at BATF who - no matter their motivation, personal, to clean up ATF, or because it is the right thing to do - are risking so much to come forward.

We are all proud of you, Mike. Let us pray that there is major cleaning and reconstruction at BATF, and that there will be some long-overdue reparations for David Olofson, Len Savage, and so many others whose lives were damaged or destroyed by scum like Jody Keeku and the tyrants in the CCO.

Being interested in the history of government excess and abuse of its own citizens, someday I would love to see a photo rogue's gallery of some of these monsters, like Jody Keeku, Judge Charles Clevert, Jr, et al. I'm sure some of us would enjoy seeing one hundred of them, but even just a few would be nice.

Link sent to the executive editor of the local rag. Even if AP waters this down to an ATF cheerleading session, HE'LL know. We'll see what shows up in his little (and shrinking) paper. Also, the local rogue roving TV reporter who was a Pulitzer nominee and isn't afraid to investigate ANYTHING.

This is indeed a battle won, but I have to agree with Anon. We cant yet see where this will lead. I see BATFU breaking up on the rocks but I see its people and mission simply being rescued by DHS. The Pirate crew that is created, to continue with the metephor, is an unknown but I dont see them giving up the burning looting and raping. There are many possible outcomes but the overall picture is in shadowWe are on the edge looking into darkness.

Anon at 8:19 writes: "I'm not looking forward to dealing with a department devised from the ground up totally for the political and social engineering ends that BATFE was warped into serving since 1968 or so-"

A government bureau to regulate the use, possession, and transfer of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives exists purely for political and social engineering ends. 100% of it. All of it. The bureau wasn't warped in 1968, it was expanded.

Are you claiming that the original job of the BATFE was to make sure moonshine in commerce doesn't contain lead, firearm barrels meet pressure design standards, and explosives are packed safely when they are transported on roads -- but as long as the regulated objects are manufactured as advertised they could care less who has them? That claim doesn't match the historical record of any government's efforts at gun control, including America's. The first use of gun control in America was to disarm blacks after the civil war, so they would remain partially enslaved.

What Does It Mean To Be A "Three Percenter"?

These four principles -- moral strength, physical readiness, no first use of force and no targeting of innocents -- are the hallmarks of the Three Percent ideal. Anyone who cannot accept them as a self-imposed discipline in the fight to restore the Founders' Republic should find something else to do and cease calling themselves a "Three Percenter."

No, I'm NOT Charlie. I am ARMED.

Edmund Burke reconsidered in the light of 20th Century funeral pyres.

"Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann.

The Nyberg Battle Flag of the Three Percent

This time we are ALL Davidians. This time, we are all Jews, Kulaks, "counter-revolutionists" and "enemies of the state." We are now a despised minority within a country no longer our own.BUT WE WILL NOT BE DESPISED.

My Blog List

Advice on child rearing from my son.

Everyone should grow up with simulated equipment from a heavy weapons platoon. It gives you a more well rounded education and an appreciation for the finer things in life. -- Sergeant Matthew Vanderboegh, United States Army.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.